Prague Economic Papers, 2015 (vol. 24), issue 4
Original contributions, Original article, Research article
Economic Interpretation of Human Behaviour in Terms of Health Promotion
Zdeněk Chytil, Arnošt Klesla, Tomáš Kosička
Prague Economic Papers 2015, 24(4):371-385 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.542 
The economic approach to health promotion describes human behaviour towards preservation of individual health by methods of the economic analysis. We have developed mathematical model based on the Grossman's theory of Demand for Health (1972) showing two basic approaches. The investors prevent diseases by adopting healthy lifestyle and therefore minimize costs of healthcare. The consumers, however, depend on the healthcare system and cause further increase of its expenditures. It is also demonstrated that the latter approach leads to the increase of expenditures on maintaining the level of public health. Also the strong incidence of chronic and almost...
The Stability of the Credit Supply in the Globalized Banking Sector Environment: The Case of the EU New Member States-10
Mejra Festić
Prague Economic Papers 2015, 24(4):386-398 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.543
The influence of foreign banks on a host country's lending depends on several factors, including the policy of the parent bank, the strategy of entry, economic cycles in the home country and abroad, growth prospects, the indebtedness of commitments and the capital adequacy of the parent bank. During the most recent economic crisis, the credit supply of foreign banks in the 10 new European Union (EU) Member States has not remained stable in the crisis. More specifically, we find evidence that foreign banks have cut the credit supply slightly in the new EU Member States.
Knowledge Relatedness and Knowledge Space Based on EPO Patents
Jana Vlčková, Nikola Kaspříková
Prague Economic Papers 2015, 24(4):399-415 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.544
How is knowledge distributed over space and how are different types of knowledge related? These questions have so far received little attention. In this paper we measure knowledge relatedness based on the relationship between individual patent categories by using coclassification information obtained from EPO patents. We also follow specialization of countries and its evolution over the past three decades. We focus on the EU, the United States and China. The objective of this paper is to identify the knowledge relatedness between technological fields and to map knowledge produced in selected countries. For visualization of knowledge relatedness network...
Evaluation of the Impacts of Rural Development Policy Measures on the Local Economy in the Czech Republic
Zuzana Bednaříková
Prague Economic Papers 2015, 24(4):416-433 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.545
The objective of the paper is to analyse and evaluate the impact of measures supporting job creation, within the Rural Development Programme of the Czech Republic for 2007-2013, on regional production, income and employment in the Vysočina region by using structural inputoutput analysis. The regional input-output model built on the example of the Vysočina region serves as a tool for the analysis. To perform the impact analysis a regional input-output table for the Vysočina region was constructed by using GRIT method. A part of the analysis is the identification of factors that influence the size of the impacts found. The main findings show that analysed...
Efficiency in the Slovak Banking Industry: A Comparison of Three Approaches
Martin Boďa, Emília Zimková
Prague Economic Papers 2015, 24(4):434-451 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.546
The paper emphasizes that any approach to defining technical efficiency in banking is just a different outlook on manifold goals and functions that commercial banks pursue. Three commonly applied approaches, i.e. the service-oriented approach, the intermediation approach and the profitoriented approach, are not in conflict but are complementary in providing information on how commercial banks perform in financial intermediation, provision of banking services and profit seeking. In addition to the methodological contribution of the paper, it investigates the efficiency of the Slovak banking industry over the years 2000-2011 so as to find whether employment...
Directed Technical Change, Technology Adoption and the Resource Curse Hypothesis
George Adu
Prague Economic Papers 2015, 24(4):452-472 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.547
This paper analyses the effect of asymmetry in factor endowments between resourcerich and resource-poor countries on equilibrium bias of technology development and adoption possibilities. First, we show that the bias in equilibrium technology in the resource-poor North is determined by its relative abundance of human capital and physical capital. Secondly, we show that the equilibrium bias in technology in the resource-abundant South is dependent positively (negatively) on the relative abundance (scarcity) of skilled (unskilled) labour and the relative abundance (scarcity) of physical (natural) capital in the North. This force is dampened by the relative...
Realism, Instrumentalism and the Time Aspect of Theory Building
Miroslav Svoboda
Prague Economic Papers 2015, 24(4):473-481 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.525
This paper contributes to the debate about the role of realism and instrumentalism in social science. It asserts that the debate should distinguish between ex-ante and ex-post perspectives. Ex-post, i.e. once the research is done, instrumentalism might be given priority because in this situation, significant predictive power is the key. On the other hand, ex-ante, i.e. before any model revealed its predictive power, only realism may give a hint of which direction is promising to pay off the effort. Thus both realism and instrumentalism play their role in the scientific activity, depending on the stage of the research. In this paper I argue that in...